DSC Calendar

Click on the image for our full calendar.

December Membership Special -- December 1st through December 31st

Maintenance Work Party -- Dec. 3rd

Maintenance Work Party --  Dec. 10th

Frostbite Sailing -- December 10th

Maintenance Work Party -- Dec. 17th

Maintenance Work Party -- January 7th

The Downtown Sailing Center's 2012 Membership and end of year giving campaigns kick off Thursday, December 1.

From now until December 31, 2011 new and returning members receive 10% off the membership rate for Crew Level, Impulse 21 and J/22/Sonar Skipper memberships. 
 
When you join the Downtown Sailing Center you receive great member benefits that make sailing accessible and affordable for everyone. Your membership provides you with recreational access to an exciting fleet of dinghies, day sailing keelboats and cruising vessels as well as regular social events. 

When you upgrade your membership to participate in cruising and racing programs you open the possibility of Thursday Night Racing and cruising events too. There are great education benefits for members as well. All Crew and Skipper level members receive significant discounts on Downtown Sailing Center clinics and education classes including US Sailing Basic Keelboat and US Sailing Powerboating courses.  

Last year 135 members joined in December. This year we hope to increase the number of new and returning members who will take advantage of the December discount and return for another great season of recreational sailing, Open Sails, cruising events, Thursday Night Racing, Friday Night Fun races, Friday Socials and more. Join today!

Joining is easy.

New Members: If you are new to the sailing center just click on Become A Member to register. If you are already a member, renewing your membership is just a few clicks away. 

Returning Members: To renew your membership, log on to the Downtown Sailing Center website (your email and password are required) and click on View Profile(top right corner of webpage).

You will have a choice of renewing at your existing membership level or changing your membership level. Once you decide which level you want you can select your upgrades (racing/cruising skipper or crew), opt to donate your discount back to the Downtown Sailing Center and register for volunteer opportunities. Finally, you will be asked to select online or manual payment, and you are done. In less than two minutes you have renewed for another great season of sailing with the Downtown Sailing Center.

If you have any questions about joining or renewing your membership please contact the office at 410-727-0722 or email Membership Manager Grady Byus.

With opportunities to sail all winter long, now is a great time to join and save!

In order to make the Downtown Sailing Center the special place that it is we depend on your support. When you join, we encourage you to also donate.

When you donate, you help us serve more than 1500 Baltimore youth and people with disabilities.  Last year we raised nearly $5000 in the month of December. This year we hope to break that total and we have made it easy to give when you join. 

When you register you can "donate your discount" back to the sailing center and receive end of year tax benefits while helping the DSC fulfill its mission.

Donations to that Downtown Sailing Center are tax deductible and help us bring the joy of sailing to those that we serve through our youth, community outreach and accessible sailing programs.  Help others enjoy the gift of sailing this year by donating today. Thank you.

"This fall DSC staff Lynn Handy and Jill Bradley attended the National Sailing Hall of Fame workshop entitled, "Learning math and science through sailing." The goal of the workshop was for National Consortium members to discuss the best way to incorporate math and science into sailing curriculums. They both learned key components for piloting a STEM program for the Downtown Sailing Center.

A day later Baltimore Born Executive Director, Gabe Cohee came to our site with the idea of partnering with the DSC. Baltimore Born is a non-profit focused on providing academic guidance for boys from the Olivier community of East Baltimore. Gabe knew that his participants have never been on the water and would love the opportunity to learn in a new, unique environment."

For more on the Baltimore Born program, read Outreach Manager Lynn Handy's blog post here.

This month the DSC was featured in the Chesapeake Bay sailing magazine, SpinSheet. Two articles can be found in the magazine featuring Former DSC Board President Steve Gross, and an article on DSC Accessible participant Joshua Golden.

To view these articles online click here.

The article on Steve Gross can be found on page 19.

The article on Joshua Golden can be found on page 30.

As many are aware, the newly formed Membership Council has been meeting on a monthly basis to address membership topics and plan for the upcoming season. As part of the process, the council, at the direction of the Board of Directors, has been defining the membership and creating the mission, vision, and values for the members of the DSC.

As a result of this hard work, the Membership Council has proposed the following Membership Statement and would like to hear your feedback. Please send any comments to Membership Manager Grady Byus. Comments and suggestions will be addressed at the December 12th council meeting.

"The Membership of the Downtown Sailing Center is a community and part of the larger DSC community. We are committed to supporting each other as individuals and as a group, the mission of the DSC and our shared resources in the following ways:

• We have fun and make sailing and our community enjoyable for one another.
• We live by the best tradition of the Corinthian Spirit.
• We treat each other with respect, and we treat the fleet and facilities with respect.
• We provide each other opportunities to sail by serving as skippers and crew.
• We teach and mentor each other and constantly strive to be better sailors.
• We respect the letter and spirit of DSC rules and maintain the highest standards of safety and seamanship.
• We volunteer our time, effort and personally meaningful financial support, because we understand that the DSC relies on volunteerism and donations to accomplish its mission.
• We are dedicated to making the DSC a sustainable and growing organization for future members and for the broader DSC community."